Michael Center, right, former men's tennis coach at the University of Texas at Austin, departs federal court with an unidentified woman, Wednesday, April 24, 2019, in Boston, after he pled guilty to charges in a nationwide college admissions bribery scandal.

Photo: Steven Senne, AP

AUSTIN – Fired by the university March 13 for his role in a wide-ranging college admissions scandal, former Texas men’s tennis coach Michael Center pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest serves mail fraud. He could face between 15 and 21 months in prison, according to court filings.

Center, 54, appeared before Judge Richard G. Stearns at Moakley Courthouse in Boston. He was one of 50 individuals charged in what is regarded as the largest college admissions scam ever prosecuted by the U.S. Justice Department.

So far, 14 of 33 parents charged in the admissions scandal have pleaded guilty.

Center, whose contract with Texas paid out $232,000 annually, is accused of accepting a $100,000 bribe from William "Rick" Singer, alleged mastermind of the scheme and founder of a now discredited college preparatory business called The Edge College & Career Network, LLC, also known as "The Key." Singer last month pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and obstruction of justice.

Center agreed to accept approximately $100,000 from Singer as a bribe – approximately $40,000 of which was donated to Texas Athletics – in exchange for which he would designate a student to the tennis team on a “books scholarship,” thereby facilitating his admission to the university.

Center admitted to a forfeiture of the $60,000 bribe “on the grounds that it is equal to the amount the process of the defendant derived from the offense,” according to his plea deal.

Singer, identified as “Cooperating Witness 1” in unsealed documents, told investigators that in June 2015, he flew to Austin and delivered Center approximately $60,000 in a hotel parking lot. In a recorded conversation, Center said he put some of the money into the school’s new tennis facility.

Texas awarded the student a books scholarship on April 13, 2015, and the student was added to the tennis team roster, according to the affidavit.

Shortly after starting classes at Texas during the fall 2015 semester, the applicant withdrew from the team and renounced his “books” scholarship, meaning that he decided to no longer receive money from the university to purchase his school books and he no longer would be classified as a student-athlete.

During a wire-tapped phone call on Oct. 5, 2018, Singer spoke with Center about engaging in a similar scheme for “next year.”

Singer asked Center if they could “do what we did last time.” The Texas coach agreed, mentioned a $90,000 payment from last time, and said he would “see what I can do.”

Center was the only Texas coach implicated and his full staff remains. During his tenure, which began in July 2000, Texas made three NCAA Final Four appearances and claimed nine Big 12 championships and eight conference tournament titles. He was named Big 12 Coach of the Year in 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018.

The University of Texas at Austin is also investigating whether hundreds of thousands of dollars was donated to its athletic department by a purported charity linked to a college bribery and recruitment scheme.

Federal tax documents show Key Worldwide Foundation, a California-based nonprofit that federal prosecutors allege funneled bribes from wealthy parents to get their children into prestigious universities, donated a total of $546,500 in 2015 and 2016 to “University of Texas Athletics.”

But the university only has record of a $15,000 donation in June 2015 for an outdoor tennis facility, according to UT-Austin spokesman J.B. Bird.

“To our knowledge, this is the only record we have of a donation from, or related to, the organization,” school spokesman J.B. Bird wrote in an emailed response to questions from the Houston Chronicle. “The university is in the process of reviewing other gifts that could be related to the 2015 incident, which could total several hundred thousand dollars. All information is being shared with federal investigators.”

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